When I start up my main computer and get to the login page it takes ages to actually login and sometimes when it gets to the desktop it never actually finishes booting up to the point where Windows is usable (I have to use RESET to get control on the next boot).

I realise it is probably a user profile issue but I am curious to try and work out what is going on without having to go through the hassles of setting up and configuring all my apps in a new user environment.

Anyone got any ideas how to troubleshoot this.

I have looked in Applications and System even logs and there are no problems showing up at all (even when Windows fails to complete it's startup process).

I did a boot with Boot Logging enabled and got the following output - any one got any ideas why a number of drivers are not loading, if it is a problem (given that none of them gett events logged) and if so how to troubleshoot this?

Thanks - yes I know about Repair install. In the past I have mixed success with Repair Install and want to avoid it if possible.

On a number of occasions when I have used it there have been problems getting it to complete without error which left the system in a worse state than when I started. A common issue is the installation asking for files it cannot find.

The strange thing is that when my system starts to the point of being usable there are no problems and I can run it for days without issue. There are no errors popping up in the Event Viewer and I haven't got any devices or software that don't seem to work normally.

I suspect the problem is the order in which device drivers or services are loaded during the boot process but there is no obvious way to change that once windows is installed.

You could try running something like Glary Utilities and do a registry scan. I've had that fix some really oddball startup issues similar to yours.

Another (extremely tedious) alternative is to invoke a Diagnostic Startup with msconfig and then try turning things back on a few at a time until you've isolated the problem code.

I'd look at any security software you're running first.

One thing that might be causing delays is if some security app is set to do a startup scan. Ditto if something is configured to do a definition update on start of Windows. If the app can't get to it's update site, you could wind up waiting until its updater times out. Avira and Spybot S&D both caused this problem for me. These days, I turn all automatic update features off.

Note: I did have the exact same problem about 6 months ago with an Athalon motherboard after I updated the chipset drivers. The new NVidia GForce drivers that got installed as part of the package didn't always get along with CCleaner. I wound up uninstalling CCleaner and the problem went away. Queries to NVidia, Piriform, and the board manufacturer went unanswered. FYI: The latest version of CCLeaner is back on that machine and running without any problems. Go figure.

I'll check out my nForce drivers. I recently updated those (and my GeForce drivers) and there have been a few oddities since. The GeForce drivers were such a pain I removed them and reinstalled an earlier release which I thought had cleared and issue with my TV tuner.

I have two gigabit ethernet ports on my mobo and noticed that one of them was sharing an IRQ with both the graphics card and also a firewire interface (I can't see that firewire and graphics are a relationship made in heaven). Anyway I moved my ethernet cable to the other port and disabled the one sharing an IRQ and it certainly seems to have speeded up startup a little - though time will tell if it has actually cured the non-completion at startup for good.

Do you have any mapped network drives? I've seen them stall startups before if there was any connection issues.

Also if the issue is after login then it suggests a user app may be the trouble and not drivers or services. Since such apps are rarely essential you could switch them all off with AutoRuns and should that work then tediously turn them back on to find the culprit.

I think you may have hit the nail on the head - I have just got a new network printer which has a mapped network drive for the built in card reader. It generally tries to connect to that drive and complains during startup- because network hasn't yet been established.

Is there any way of running networking as a service or something similar so that it can be loaded when the login page appears rather than when the user logs in? It is a straightforward router based workgroup network.

Failing that is there any way to unmap the drive? I have a front panel media reader in all my computers so the one in the printer is superfluous unless I want to print direct from the card (unlikely).

This is a site with a lot of registry tweaks for XP. Item 376 in this list is about disabling network shares. Maybe that is your solution.Although item 399 could also be of interest to you...disabling and enabling the wait for the network.

Actually this morning when I switched on it started up fine - I had a bit of a clearout yesterday and dumped a load of startup items that I rarely use. I'll play it be ear for the time being and see if it has been fixed by the clean up!